New to air sim, a bit disappointed

So I popped into air sim because I was tired of how arcadey and repetitive air RB was becoming. Hopped into my trusty P38J and… WAIT, WHAT?? 10k SL to repair?? on a 4.7 BR plane vs a 5.0 BR premium Spitfire at something like 6k SL?

Playing that plane made no sense to me and when I tried it out and died 3 times, (with a lot of activity including several air kills) I was -still- behind on SL. What would it take for me to play this plane and not go into the negatives? I don’t think a spawn cost is fair, much less a 10k spawn cost which is nearly double the spawn cost of a plane that is higher in BR. I just see no justification for it.

So I looked at the spawn costs for other planes and some of them made as much sense as spawn costs in general. Can we please have it like other game modes where you pay a repair cost?

What gives?

5 Likes

Hello, welcome to sim. Unfortunately rewards are pretty horrible, depending on respawn cost I usually break-even with premium account, the only way I make any meaningful SL is with a premium jet…

Air Sim has the “useful actions” system where you can only make a limited amount of RP/SL every 15 minutes, it’s pretty easy to fill up one of these 15 minute blocks but that means any score you earn after you’ve already hit the “cap” in those 15 minutes, you’ll earn nothing from.
This system is there mainly to deal with farmers/botters but it also means that even if you’re doing very well for 15 minutes, let’s say you score 10 kills and 5 deaths, you’ll cap out your earnings at maybe the third kill, and for the next 7 kills you earn nothing but still pay all the respawn costs for whatever remains of the 5 deaths. So basically you lose a lot of money from fast-paced gameplay (and dying a lot, duh)

4 Likes

I kinda get the “useful actions” system. (makes no sense)

I’m not even looking to earn a lot or farm SL. I’m just looking for a way to be able to keep playing my favorite plane without being at a loss in the end.

I’ll admit to having spent a little money on premium versions of planes I enjoyed flying -when I was enjoying it- but now that enjoyment has become frustration, I am holding off and will continue to hold off for the time being. If things improve, then I might spend more but likely, I’ll just move on to IL2 and DCS where I don’t have to constantly spend money to continue playing the game.

If you end a match with negative sl it gets 0ed out with premium account so to answer your question in order to learn sim you need to not make SL and pay. Thats the way it is none of us like it and gaijin wont change it with lots of feedback asking for it to change.

As another note make sure to land to get your full rewards. If you’re shot down you only receive half.

1 Like

Yeah same, I don’t care about earning much SL. I’ve already finished 4 air trees, but I can see how it’s frustrating for someone grinding an air tree (without premium) and aren’t able to purchase new jets.

You can never lose money if you have a premium account, you’ll be compensated and if you have a premium jet, you can save up a few SL boosters and make 600k-1.2M SL from a single game.

One of the few things I like about sim is how consistent it is, it’s easy to maximize your “useful actions” and make the most of your boosters, whereas in RB you might get killed right away or get a nasty uptier and waste the booster for the day, so that’s something

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The reward system right now is completely absurd. Unecessary complicated, almost impossible to be positive without premium time/plane… it’s been worsened over years and the state it’s in right now… well is purely like this to frustrate you into buying something. Cause chances in high tier are high, that you’re more willing to pay money for something compared to low BRs.

I mean, its fine to spend some money on a game you play hundreds of hours, but if you can´t afford to play without, that kills the game.

I had to “farm” SL with my good old premium Dora for two evenings to buy the 5th rank 7 plane, so I could finally start researching the Mig29.
This system is completely built around premium.

No one denies that they need to earn money. But the screw is being tightened every month over the last years, probably until the tipping point is reached and generated revenue is maximized, just before people start jumping off. I mean imagine single permium vehicles cost 70-80 USD at the moment. A single vehicle for the cost of a whole AAA game. Which even can be a reskinned tech tree version with some changed loadout. Can you imagine how much profit that generates? It’s hard to imagine for me, but I’d say a lot. (Not even talking about the returning income through premium time/frustration buys/GE/SL/Gaijin coin and so on)

2 Likes

Get something fast (attacker) with good bombs and at least a few cannons for killing AI bombers or attackers and blow bases. Learn how to hit ground targets well and fly very low and sneaky or spend 3 days going stratosferic … and I dont even acnowledge the useful action. Im loaded with SL on free mode - buying a villa in Afganistan this week.

When you start into jets it can be hard, heavy losses with a flock of stock planes. So again I would hit and run ground until you have the planes to compete. Not so easy with cannons though.

It does not really justify the current system, but I’ve found the 2.7-4.6 or so BR range the most sustainable as a new player to sim.

My P-51C mustang, F4Us and P38Gs cost about the same as getting shot down by the enemy rewards in score, so I come out neutral unless I crash or die to my own fault. They’re also much harder to stall out than F8F and more powerful/higher torque planes.

Rewards still suck, and probably more so due to inefficient research but - hey, you can play without worry about going bankrupt.